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WrestleMania 28 - Who's Going?


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Awesome few days. Glad everyone loved The Clevelander!

 

Sad to be home. Planning to write some form of blog post at the weekend.

 

In the meantime, some pics also starring Jake The Snake, Sunny, Paul Bearer, William Regal, Mickie James and more here:

 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1...mp;l=fab27f0e89

 

Getting a motorcade to Mania as part of the official WWE corporate entourage was one of the most amazing, insane things I will ever experience.

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I got back from Miami on Wednesday. Here's my quick review of my week away:

 

I flew into Miami on Tuesday last week, arriving in the evening. The following morning I met up with friends to travel down to Key West for a two-night stay. Key West is a pretty cool place, very easy-going, laid-back lifestyle there. There's not loads to do other than chill out, eat and drink, so two nights was about the right amount of time to stop there. We drove back up to Miami on Friday, stopping at Gator Park for an everglades airboat tour, which I would recommend to anybody- it far surpassed my expectations. It's amazing seeing gators so close in their natural environment.

 

Friday evening was RoH. I hadn't been to a RoH show since I was last in Orlando four years ago for WrestleMania 24. There was a time when I was quite a fan, but these last few years I feel my tastes have changed and I've just paid no attention to them. I was still looking forward to watching some live wrestling to kick off the WrestleMania weekend though.

 

I must admit, that while I would never really bother watching RoH on TV or DVD anymore, their shows are still a fun live experience. There were a few dud matches on the card, but on the whole it was a pretty good show and the enthusiasm of the crowd really helped. The YES! chants were in full force here. I figured that this was because D-Bryan is obviously a big favourite of the RoH audience, I had no idea that the chant would get so over at the WWE events over the weekend. The people I was at the show with didn't even know what the YES! chant was all about at first, I had to explain to them that it was a Daniel Bryan thing. That just demonstrates how fast this thing has come about.

 

On Saturday me and my mate were due to go to the DGUSA show, but decided not to bother after hearing that the previous night's event wasn't all that good. I figured we would have more fun getting pissed down at the Bayside. I think we made a good choice.

 

Didn't bother with any of the WWE Axxess stuff, or the WrestleReunion convention that was in town. I'm no longer enthusiastic about meeting wrestlers, especially if you have to pay over the odds for it. I was more interested in exploring Miami. The open-top bus tours were a good way to get about and see the city.

 

So onto WrestleMania. I've seen some mixed reviews of the show on here, but all I can say is that I thought it was a brilliant show on the whole and I enjoyed it much more than my previous live WrestleMania experience (24). With Daniel Bryan's appearance being so eagerly anticipated by the crowd, I was really quite pissed off at first by the manner in which he lost, because I think everyone was expecting a decent ten-to-fifteen minute opener. However, I appreciated that from a storyline perspective it was a pretty perfect moment.

 

The Taker/HHH match was probably my highlight of the show. The crowd were red hot at moments for this. The pop that followed Taker's kick-out after the Sweet Chin/Pedigree combo was so loud and went on so long that I was convinced that half the people there actually thought the ref had counted three. People were going crazy.

 

By the way, I didn't get a WWE Travel Package for WrestleMania, I don't see the point unless you are keen on all the Axxess stuff as well and don't mind spending that much money. We just had $130 tickets (section 118), which we bought through the presale and I thought the view was fantastic. I would always go this route in future.

 

I did want Cena to beat the Rock, but couldn't really argue with the finish that they went with. It seemed appropriate to give the fans the special WrestleMania moment that they were craving. It really did feel like a big-time moment watching The Rock celebrate as the show came to a close.

 

I thought the Punk/Jericho match was very good, especially the last five minutes with all the exciting reversals and near falls.

 

When the WrestleMania attendance was announced in the stadium my first thought was 'bullshit!'. It didn't look like there was close to 78,000 people there, there were tonnes of empty seats in the upper sections.

 

Raw on Monday night was possibly the best WWE show I've attended outside of the WrestleManias. What an atmosphere! There was a lot of talk of Brock Lesnar's potential appearance but I don't know how many people knew for certain. I thought there was maybe a 30% chance he would be there. To actually witness his first appearance in 8 years was pretty special. Cena has taken an absolute bumming over the weekend, I am interested to see where they go with him next.

 

I am happy to see Albert back, but the Lord Tensai gimmick is a load of wank. It's a dead-end gimmick. His squash of A-Ry went too long and lacked intensity. I would have preferred him to just see him return as A-Train.

 

If there's one thing I love about Dolph Ziggler, it's his bumping. The way he took that headbutt from the Funkasaurus was just beautiful. Glad to see Brodus doing something other than a squash match too, hopefully a little alliance with Santino is on the cards now. Santino's dancing was hilarious. The cameras cut away to King and Cole on TV, which was a shame.

 

I was chuffed to see Mark Henry have a tremendous match with Punk- and beat him fairly! I am very excited about the prospect of him getting AW as a manager too. Big things popping for Mizark. Perhaps his main event career isn't being cut short afterall? I'd love to see him get another run with one of the top titles this year.

 

The popularity of Daniel Bryan and the YES! chants really made my night though. I'm genuinely happy to see the guy becoming so popular with the WWE audience. I can see how these chants may get a bit annoying to some, but to be fair I'm all for audience participation and I think that it's brilliant that on a show that featured a Rock promo and Brock Lesnar's return to wrestling, the only thing people were talking about as they left the building was Daniel Bryan. The dark match after the show was legitimately the most fun I've ever had at a WWE show, I was laughing and chanting the whole way through. Nice little promo from Bryan afterwards too. I bet he could hardly believe the reactions he was getting. I'm not sure yet whether WWE will embrace the YES! thing, or try to stamp it out.

 

Overall, It was a brilliant trip, well worth it for a great WrestleMania and one of the best Raws in a very long time. For anyone wondering, I got my return flights to Miami for about

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Got back Wednesday aswell, been absolute shatted, Loved pretty much every minute, my 3rd wrestlemania and def my fav one by a distance- and the other 2 weekends were pretty special.

 

Took off last Thursday from Heathrow, the flight being delayed a hour did not help things but we made time up in the air, smooth flight which I thought went fairly quick. The flighr ran out of immigration forms which was annoying but it did not matter as we could fill them out in the near 2 hour wait in Immigrations, this is the worst part of the USA in my book, the line did just not move. We slowly moved through at 5 0 clock, I was worrying about the scheduled axxess session already.

Our bags were just left out on the side in baggage but we hauled a taxi pretty quick as we checked in the Holiday Inn downtown in 15 minutes. Quick change and shower and we got another cab to South Beach for Axxess at the convention center.

Felt great being in Miami and the scenary and views looked spectacular.

I love Axxess, Just the moment you walk in, you are surrounded by amazing wwe posters and exhibits. During this session we met Edge, AJ, Beth Phoenix, Tony Atlas and The Fink and we visited Takers graveyard. Also brought the football jersey, Mania shirt, end of a era shirt and programe.

 

Friday we headed to Bayside market which was a lovely little place, for breakfast, saw Ricky Steamboat around, at 11 we had to check out and move onto our travel package hotel, for me The Hilton was miles above better in every manner, for one they really went to effort as there was tons of Mania posters, every staff had a mania shirt on, the lifts were even decked out and they had mania newspapers and miami giftcards to hand out.

We were allowed to check in early so had a free day where headed to the amazing south beach, The beach was unlike any ive been on before, wonderful, the WWE really hit the ball on the head with the location this year, What a place, Sun, Sand, Shopping, Food and a few beers took up the rest of the day before we headed to Axxess again.

 

It was packed solid tonight, Managed to meet Wade Barrett who was a super nice guy, Kofi Kingston, Alex Riley and Drew Mcintyre, The line for Drew was a joke, Now I have no problem with people who are disabled and cant manage to line up but some people really do take the piss, there was one women on a crutch who had 8 family members with her who all cut the line, we also saw numerous couples around Miami or axxess who were quick to get of their crutches or not have any when they were not meeting certain wwe superstars. The security did not help either and Drew was off the stage for close to a hour, Drew was a nice guy though.

The night was spent getting pissed drinking cocktails downtown.

 

Sat was a early start as we had VIP axxess tickets for Randy Orton, Randy was a cool guy and has a big star presence. This sessions was so much better and we also managed to meet Jack Swagger, Vickie Guerrero, Jim Ross, Jimmy Hart, Gerry Briscoe and Eve aswell as Orton. Also got pics of the MITB display, one with the wwe title, one between rock & cena, we looked around the memrobilia, which did have tons of new stuff this year, The rocks museum which was great, had tons of wrestling and movie props, they even had the tooth fairies wings.

We broke for lunch before we had to head back to axxess as we had Chris Jericho vips, we took it easy this session and met Ezikiel Jackson , Michael Mcgullicutty, Alicia Fox and Jericho himself. Jericho has always been one of my favs and is one of the last to meet on my must meet list. Also saw a really fun Santion/Ziggler match, which involved the guys chasing each other around the arena.

 

Left axxess and was greeted with a storm which just did not stop, we were trying to haul a cab in the rain for close to a hour, finally managed to get one in a hotel on the beach, the traffic was a nightmare though, and in our only bad cab experiance, we got stuck in numerous traffic jams, had to pay while the driver got out for gas, got done on a tollroad and had to wait for a boat to pass through the bridge, still this was our only bad cab experience and we thought the cabs were quick and fair priced in most cases.

 

Went in burger king before the hall of fame, 45 minutes to get served in there was not good, that place and checkers were not customer freindly.

The hall of fame was the best one ive been too, mainly due to the fact, it was not hurt by a time limit it seemed and most of the guys got good time, managed to catch all the wrestlers coming out, which was great, Bryan was greeted with yes chants- a sign of things to come, everyone pretty much got cheered apart from Cena.

Ron simmons cut a good speech, I did not have a clue what Mascaras was saying apart from his wife makes him nice food.

The Horsemens speech was excellent, Flair, Tully & Arn in particular. It was great seeing Flair although the guy is still a emoitonal wreckk at these things. You could tell how much respect fans and wrestlers alike has for Arn.

Hunter & Shawn were hilarious, For the second time in the night I had no clue what Tyson was saying.

Thought yokos induction was a bit dull.

I enjoyed Edges speech on the whole and loved that he got time, but I did not really need to hear him mention every wrestler on the planet, I dont really want to know about Matt Stryker or 3 Tommy Dreamer stories. Still most of his speech and references was good, both funny and emotional, The honor is very much deserved in my book. His video with the Foo Fighters in was tremendous. Overall a great night.

 

Once again left the hall of fame and hit the bars. Saw Curt Hawkins and Jinder Mahal.

 

Got lucky with a cab on Sunday morning as there was a Triathalon, our driver took a good route and we picked 2 guys on the way so split the fair, only stayed at axxess for a bit as we was in the area for Wrestlereunion, still managed to meet Mark Henry, Ted Dibiase- who was super nice and Jim Duggan. We didnt fancy any of the other meets and had done all the exhibits so got a cab to Wrestlereunion which was further out than I thought.

Like last year I loved Wrestlereunion, Its a great chance to meet some proper legends at reasonable prices in quick succession.

I met Rhyno, Hurricane, Kevin Nash, Rocky Johnson, Finlay, Vader, Animal, Lex Luger, Paul Orndorff, Shane Douglas, Molly Holly, Jake Roberts,Honky Tonk Man, Velvet Sky, Ahmed Johnson, Mickie James, Matt Hardy & Maria.

Most were really nice to meet apart from Vader who was a moody git and Jake Roberts who was a bit of a arse.

Rocky Johnson was super freindly and eager to find out where we were from, Luger is a class act, as is Orndorff.

Matt Hardy was my fav meet of the weekend, he was super freindly and I had a 3-4 minute conversation with him about the weekend in general, he looked in good shape aswell.

Ahmed Johnson was not in good shape. He looks like Big Daddy V, he had no lines and when I got to him he was desperate to start conversation and we had a long akward vhat about how he can get booked on a show in London. No chance. Nice guy though.

 

Went back Downtown and got ready for Mania, The laid on buses left dead on 3.30 and a 20 min smooth journey to the sunlife we was there.

There was a awesome WWE superstore, it had literally everything for everyone in there, brought a few more bits, rock & cena shirts, mania shirt and a limited to a thousand mania poster, they had awesome dvd packs which for $25 had 4 or 5 dvds in.

It was a long walk round the stadium to get to our 12th row wrestlemania seats, I had previously been worried about these but the seats were perfect, we had a clear unblocked view

of the ring and could see everything, it was great, I will def be going for floor seats again.

It was way to hot to stay in our seats for over a hour so we took back upstairs where it was mission impossible to buy a soda.

 

I always love the start of Mania, Lilian sang beautifully, the video package at the start and the song of flo rida was awesome.

I was initally very pissed of about the world title match, just for the fact I wanted a good match, but Sheamus winning in that time was certainly memorable and one i wont forget.

I actually like Orton/Kane-probabley for the fact I was still in shock of what a great view I had, suprised Kane won.

Show/Cody was a nothing match and I hated the Divas match, Why the hell did the Divas get a video package aswell.

Taker/HHH was epic, bloody amazing, a treat to see live, the crowd were going nuts, it was a awesome match ****3/4. Better than last years but being there for the first Shawn/Tasker match, nothing beats that, still this was amazing, the 3 of the guys going out together was a moment ill never forget, loved the bit at the beginning when the cell came down.

Have to say the glitz and glamour and fireworks was like nothing ive seen before.

12 Man tag was alright and had a fun final few minutes.

I also loved Jericho/Punk, a excellent match, a slow build but the final 5 minutes with the reverse holds were nuts, A really great match ****.

Clay was ok live, prob went to long.

The main event was the reason I came and delivered in every manner, The people were going nuts for Flo Rida- he was great and I had goosebumps when Rock came out, the crowd totally turned this into a great match, the atmosphere was magical, I really thought the match was over when Cena FU'd rock. I never in a million years thought Rock would win, I like Cena but I really wanted Rock to win this one and when the ref hit the 3 count I was jumping for joy, what a amazing pop, what a amazing pop, a brilliant way to end wrestlemania.

When i left my previous 2 manias, the crowd was flat, mainly thanks to some shoddy final matches, this year the place was buzzing, got my Mania chair cut and headed for the buses. I wasnt to happy when they said Chairs had to go underneath the bus, anyone could of nicked them, Made it back to the hotel around 12.30.

 

We did have a quick trip for 15 mins to the wrestlers hotel on the morning where we saw Kane, Kelly, Dibiase, Steamboat and Simmons.

Monday was spent relaxing on the beach, drinking and exploring the shops, heaven.

Raw was awesome, as someone said above the best non mania show I have ever been too and that was due to the crowd, we made the show, I had a 3rd row seat on the end, Rocks mum was in front and I met her and she liked my Rock shirt.

Rocks promo at the beginning was electric, he was totally on his game tonight.

Punk/Henry was a really good match and I liked the Jericho run in at the end.

What can be said for the final segment, unbelivable, huge pop for Lesnar and it feels special being there the night Lesnar returned. A great segment.

The dark match was heaps of fun and just summed up how much fun the weekend was, we made Bryan a star this weekend, although im not sure if it was half the people loving Bryan and half just joining in because it was damn fun and part of the weekend.

People were jumping up and down going nuts with yes chants outside. We headed to the DRB pub and tried a few different beers.

 

Headed home Tuesday evening to a decent flight, managed to get our chairs on the plane for a combined $60 and they made it back in one piece.

 

Overall just amazing, seriously if you are on the fence about doing one of these Mania trips just do it,You will not regret it. I took the plunge for 25 and have been hooked since, Ill be damn sure Im at 29 next year, being in New York will make it a great trip, Miami will be hard to be as it was such a great place.Id highly recomended the travel packages, despite the problems they pose and the lack of customer service, they always have delievered me with amazing seats and great accomodation.

 

Only one word to describe this holiday.

 

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes ! Yes !

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Just got back to the freezing cold and snow of UK. I cant express just how amazing the whole trip was. Not only was it a Wrestlemania week, but Miami Beach made it almost a double vacation.

 

The Wrestlemania and Raw we got were amongst the best I've ever seen. I might be biased because I was there, but seriously the things that happened (Rock/Cena, Taker/HHH/HBK, Brock return) were things that will remain in memory forever. I cant remember the last time a Wrestlemania or Raw was this exciting, just felt so lucky that I was a part of it.

 

I also did the Heat/Dallas game which was just insane. I never thought I'd be able to see one of my childhood favourites Jason Kidd play in person, but I did and he showed flashes of the brilliance that made me love him so much.

 

Ran into Mason Ryan in Bayside Marketplace and Lil Wayne on Ocean Drive which was ace. Daniel Bryan was also the only guy who came over and shook the fans hands after Raw outside the arena. He's such a beautiful man.

 

Oh and I think we are all part of the elite group that helped one of the greatest chants ever be truly born. YES YES YES!

 

What I want to post about is the everglades. Absolutely amazing. Who was the guy in here that went to Gator Park? That high pitched voice guy that did the show was hilarious! Had to try really hard to prevent laughing at his voice!

It was me. That guy was ace and obviously loving every minute of it. Did he do the 'frog kiss' routine? It didnt go down too well with the volunteers that he chose when I was there.

 

He did. The woman had the loudest squeal I've ever heard.

 

Chilling in my hotel in Orlando. It's still fucking roasting. And I regret saying "Pfft, its only a room to sleep in at night. This place is a shite hole!

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Our flight from Tampa to Atlanta to London leaves in just under 11 hours. It's been wicked awesome. We finished our week off with a trip to the aquarium today which was fun and went to see a nice film. I'll probably post some more recaps of the week when I'm home. It's been lots of fun though.

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Got home yesterday afternoon after a delayed flight and delayed coach home and been in and out of sleep for a few hours at a time since. Think I'm just about back to normal now. Should be ready for a decent night's sleep tonight at a reasonable hour.

 

That was my third trip to Miami and definitely the best stay yet. Did Everglades again, Axxess, WrestleReunion, an awesome Mania, an amazing Raw, a day at Bayside, a $400 trip to Dolphin Mall, a day on the beach and some cracking nights out.

 

We found a 'local' out there in the shape of Polar Beer and Burger on Lincoln. First day there they were getting stick from a fire marshall about property lines for their outdoor furniture and the manager wasn't around so for some reason our waitress said all of our drinks were free as long as we left her a good tip. We ended up for 15 bottles of Bud Light and 6 Daiquiris for a $30 tip. Went back there on our last day and the same waitress was in and gave us the same deal!

 

If I never hear "We Found Love" or "Good Feeling" ever again it will be too soon.

 

I did one trip to Axxess on the Thursday which I felt was enough. The will-call there was a nightmare though. We only bought our tickets online the day before and it took over an hour in line to collect them. There was a separate window for purchasing tickets which had almost no line. I supposed once they had our money and we'd turned they were in no rush to help us out.

 

The atmosphere when you are sat amongst American wrestling fans is so much better. People are far less self-concious and make so much more noise. Whole lot of fun. I always think at the UK shows noone wants to make a show of themselves and shout or cheer. Americans just don't give a shit. I nearly spat my beer out at Raw when a kid of about 14 behind us shouted "SHUT UP, FAGGOT!" at Jericho. That said, also behind us there was some tosser in an RoH shirt with such inspired one-man chants as "BRYAN DANIELSON", "LET'S GO ALBERT" and "DAVEY RICHARDS".

 

Let's talk local cuisine! I tried to eat a 5 pound cheeseburger. Failed miserably. I managed 6 and a bit of the 10 burgers it comes as. Felt awful afterwards. Discovered 7Eleven Slurpees. Super Gulp for $1.92! They're about

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I got a picture of that same pink cadillac. The cars down Miami were pretty sweet.

 

Anybody else try Five Guys Burgers and Fries? I was suggested to go there by a few people, pretty badass burgers in there. $5 for a double bacon cheeseburger.

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I did one trip to Axxess on the Thursday which I felt was enough. The will-call there was a nightmare though. We only bought our tickets online the day before and it took over an hour in line to collect them. There was a separate window for purchasing tickets which had almost no line. I supposed once they had our money and we'd turned they were in no rush to help us out.

 

I also took lots of photos on the off chance you are interested.

 

Strange, we qued for about a minute to collect our tickets for Axxess, maybe less.

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